X server restart (Re: [PLUG] Broadband detection)

[Karl M. Hegbloom]

Reboots are for kernel upgrades.  Not for distro upgrades, not for
conffile edits.  Downtime costs money!

Stephen Liu <satimis at writeme.com> writes:

> If I re-edit /etc/X11/XF86Config-4, is there an alternative to
> execute the new file instead of rebooting the PC

You should be able to just log out of X and have it start using the
new configuration at that point... this is if you use "gdm" and it's
configured to always restart the X server. :-) I don't know if "kdm"
offers the similar, or if Red Hat uses "gdm" or "kdm" in your
configuration.

If you don't see a system menu on your login screen, and it's "gdm",
you can:

 Log out of X;

 Exit to a Linux console with "Ctrl-Alt-F1", or if that does not work,
 try "Alt-SysReq-F1";

 Log in on the console as root;

 Edit /etc/gdm/gdm.conf, and in the "[Greeter]" section, make it say
 "SystemMenu=true".

 Type "/etc/init.d/gdm restart", and if that does not work, then try
 "killall -HUP gdm" and wait for "init" to restart it.  (It should not
 be getting run by init like that; I don't like that about Red Hat.
 I've never had "gdm" die and need to be auto restarted; I prefer to
 run it from an init.d script.)

 Now at the GDM login screen, you should have a system menu that will
 allow you to configure "gdm" through a GUI.  You won't have to edit
 it's configuration file again.  Type the root password to get in.

 Find where it says whether to always restart the X server, and set it
 so it will.  Now your X changes will take effect right after you log
 out and the X server restarts.

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